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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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My 
Handkerchief 

Garden. 

SIZE, 25x60 FEET. 



RESULTS : A Garden. 
Krilsh Vegetables, ExERCisfcr Ha*M|i,., 
ANP .*7ri..<ii. t !>-■;; 

BY 

CHARLESBARNARD. 





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CHAPTER I. 
(Introduction.) How it Began, ... 1 

CHAPTER II. 
What was Done with it, .... . 5 

CHAPTER III. 
Times and Seasons, . . . .12 

CHAPTER IV. 
Plans for Work, 18 

CHAPTER V. 
Starting the Garden in the House, . . .25 

CHAPTER VI. 
Close Cropping, ...... 34 

CHAPTER VII. 
A Dish of^ Salads 39 

CHAPTER VIII. 
What to Do with a City Yard, ... 42 

CHAPTER IX. 
A City Fruit Garden, ...... 53 

CHAPTER X. 
The Conclusion of the Whole Matter. 63 



MY 

Handkerchief Garden. 






CHAPTER I. 
UOUJ IT BGGAO 




LONG the edge of the 
Sound, from Stamford to 
New York, we had looked 
everywhere in the hope that 
we might find a small house, 
a little garden, and a low 
rent. These things seldom 
grow together. Houses with 
no land-, land enough with 
big houses, and both land 
and houses in plenty at high rents. At last it was 
found ; a six-room house with a mere handkerchief 
of a garden, measuring about one-thirtieth of an acre, 
or about as big as a city back yard. The soil was 
a wet, heavy clay, full of stones, and shaded by a 
number of tall trees growing on the next lot. In 
March, 1887, we moved to the place, and on the 
twenty-first we paid twenty-five cents for one paper 



2 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

of Boston Market Lettuce seed. So it was the scrap 
of a garden began, and thereon does hang the 
more or less learned remarks that make this book.- 
There are people so constituted that they cannot 
see anything remarkable in a paper of seeds. A seed 
is potential wealth — bran new wealth that does not 
exist, but waits the partnership of nature and the 
gardener. Seeds are about the cheapest thing in the 
world. At wholesale a cent will buy a hundred seeds 
of lettuce. An acre of ground, if managed by a 
man who knows his trade, will produce in one sea- 
son 40,000 heads of lettuce. New York will calmly 
eat every head at three cents each and cry for more. 
You would probably pay at the store five cents a 
head or $2,000 for the lot. 

Oh! Figures can be made to say anything. 

Think so? 

All the same, you and I and the rest of the folks do 
pay $2,000 to somebody for that yield of le.ttuce many 
times over every spring. 

It's quite true the actual grower may not get it all. 
He seldom does and thereon might be written a 
tale of woe that would move the world to tears had it 
not, poor world, been listening to the gruesome story 
for about seven thousand years. There are problems 
in social economies so old that they have lost the 
power of speech. This is one of them, and it was in 
our handkerchief garden we dug up a great truth that 
may help to solve this very problem. It was a dusty 
old truth and smelled of the earth, yet, by decking it 
out in a few sprigs of pungent parsley, and framing it 
with the enticing lettuce, the persuasive pea, and the 
inspiring cauliflower, I hope to set it forth as a dish 
worthy the intelligent reader's grateful digestion. 

A garden is a queer place. You can dig up facts 
and greens with the same hoe — provided you know a 



//OiV IT BEGAN-. 3 

fact when you see it. Therefore, it happens that in 
presenting this dish of greens I may add sundry facts 
for dressing, the same facts being duly dug up in the 
same handkerchief garden. Persons of a romantic and 
expansive frame of mind have written about gardens 
without regard to the facts growing therein. One 
particularly aggravating person even wrote a tearful 
account of one sad summer in a garden, and the world 
has been delighted to read it many times over. My 
handkerchief garden is on a plane of more solemn im- 
port, and its great moral lessons are not addressed to 
persons of a light and sportive nature. They appeal 
rather to those finer instincts of the heart that cluster 
round the dinner table and the green-grocer's bill. 

A pinch of seed in a paper bag is about as useless a 
thing as you can find. The seed must be joined to 
three great facts in nature — heat, moisture and light, 
if new wealth is to reward our labors. Lettuce seed 
will sprout in a temperature ranging from 60° to 70° by 
day, and not less than 40° by night.* Our room had 
a west window and was warmed by a small stove. 
Here were the elements of horticultural success. 
There was no gas in the room. This is most import- 
ant — for in my experience it is difficult, almost im- 
possible, to raise plants of any kind where gas is 
burned. A single gas-jet will spoil the air as fast as 
six men. Plants must have pure air, and as they can 
not go out for a walk every time they have a head- 
ache, they give up in despair in a rooni where a gas- 
lamp has ruined the air for breathing purposes. The 
moral of all this is just here; if plants will not thrive 
in bad air, how can we ? We do not. There is, it is 
true, no authenticated record of a death by reason of a 
gas-light, yet it is also true that we are hurt in greater 

* All temperature records here are by Fahrenheit's seale. 



4 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN: 

or less degree by every lamp that burns in our houses. 
The real moral is — ventilate your rooms. 

To secure the union of the three facts, heat, light, 
and moisture, and bring them to our lettuce seed, we 
procured a six-inch flower-pot, worth, perhaps, ten 
cents at retail. By dint of digging in the garden I 
managed to get a few lumps of half frozen soil, and 
put them to dry on the floor by the fire. In a few 
hours the soil was soft enough to break up into dry 
mould in the hand, and I filled the pot nearly full, 
scattered the lettuce seed on top, sifted more soil 
over it through the fingers, and gently pressed it 
down firm. A sprinkle of water shaken over the soil 
by hand, wet the seed, and then the pot was placed 
in a warm corner behind the stove, and covered with 
an old newspaper. Two factors were thus provided, 
heat and moisture. The third could be added after- 
wards, as soon as the seeds began to stir with young 
life. For three days the flower-pot garden was 
examined night and morning, and, if the soil was dry, 
a little more water was added. On the fourth day 
the surface was broken by tender young things just 
poking their green fingers up to reach the light and 
air. The pot was at once placed in the window, and 
there it stayed about six weeks, and was then com- 
pletely filled with young lettuce plants about three 
inches high, and hanging over the sides of the pot in 
a luxuriant, pale-green mass. So it was my handker- 
chief garden began in my study window. 






T 



WHAT IV AS DONE WITH IT. 5 

CHAPTER II. 
UJPAT IDAS DODG UJITR IT. 

a HEN the snows of March melted away, 
the garden came into sight. The former 
tenant had apparently regarded the 
garden as the proper place to deposit 
the waste of a generation. Bones, clam- 
shells, rejected shoes and cans, were 
plentiful. Added to this, it had not 
been dug over since the last crop, and corn-stubble 
covered half the space. The carpenters at work on 
the house had tramped the soil down hard, and in 
a corner under the trees were, the remains of count- 
less weeds nipped by last year's frost. 

A very slight examination showed that the soil had 
one great merit. It was strong. A mass of rocks, 
weathered by the storms of a hundred years, and 
grey with moss, had sent down their fertilizing dust, 
and the tall trees had every year carpeted the place 
with their leaves. There had also been hens and pigs 
on the place, and these, too, had done what they 
•could to contribute to the future crops. Rumor also 
had it that in the previous year it had been heavily 
manured, and had borne a large crop of corn and 
beans. Here was the problem. The place measured 
about eighty feet on one street, and seventy-five on 
another. The house stood just south of the center, 
near the street. A rocky cliff behind the house, while 
very picturesque, was, of course, valueless for any 
purpose, being too steep for a foothold, and too bare 
to produce anything save mosses and lichens. What 
could we do with it. . The most simple way to treat 



-6 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

the place would be to. sow grass seed over all the 
ground, and keep it in grass. Merely to let it run up 
to grass would be cheap but ugly. If in grass at all, 
it must be kept as a lawn. A lawn would certainly 
look well, save all care and expense, except the 
weekly clipping to keep the grass in order. That 
means a lawn-mower, costing ten dollars. It means 
labor in pushing it over the grass, not less than fif- 
teen times every summer. It is doubtful if this could 
be done for less than fifteen dollars. Some of my 
neighbors tell me it costs $1.50 a week for five months 
each year to keep a small lawn in order. The cost 
on this place, including the mower, would not be less 
than twenty-five dollars the first year. The cost of 
preparing the ground and sowing the seed would not 
be less than four dollars more, and each spring, fer- 
tilizer to the value of two dollars would be required. 
It began to look as if the cheapest thing that could 
be done would be pretty expensive. Of course, the 
place could be left to take care of its.elf, but this 
would be morally wrong. There were gardens on 
every side kept free from weeds at a greater or less 
expenditure of time, labor and money. To suffer 
weeds to bloom and scatter their seeds over these 
gardens, and thus to injure the neighbors' property, 
would be inexcusable. No man has a right to propa- 
gate weeds near any cultivated land. It is simply 
unjust to permit weeds of any kind to grow on 
your land while others are trying to keep them out 
of their land. A lawn is, therefore, a moral measure, 
as it checks the growth of weeds, and by its beauty 
enhances the value of the estate, and of all those 
near it. 

That settled the matter. Something must be done 
with the ground. It must be either laid down to 
grass, or cultivated as a garden. The chief cost of a 



WHAT WAS DONE WITH IT. 7 

lawn is the labor. There was my own labor. Could 
I not push the lawn-mower myself? Many of the 
gentlemen near by did so. Why could I not do like- 
wise ? No reason whatever why I might not in this 
way save part of the expense of a lawn. 

Now a lawn-mower is very well in its way. It's not 
very hard work to use it, and it keeps a man out in the 
air and sunshine. The chief objection is that it is not 
work enough. It pays to work out of doors. For 
every man who works a part of the day in the house 
there should be several hours devoted to exercise in 
the open air. A garden is a sanitary measure. It 
takes you out on the sweet, healthful ground. A gar- 
den is a good place to bury headaches. That settled 
the matter, and I decided to use all the available land 
.for a flower and kitchen garden. There were two 
other reasons, beside the sanitary advantage, for 
having a garden. In suburban towns and villages 
the rent is for the house, and the lot of land on which 
it stands is practically thrown in free. It costs no 
more to have the house without the land than with it, 
for as soon as the land becomes too valuable, the 
houses cover all the land as in a city. If the land is 
used for a garden it will make a solid financial return, 
while a lawn pays nothing beyond the doubtful value 
of looking pretty from the road and the Christian 
grace of doing as you would be done by in the matter 
of weeds. All this had been settled when the lettuce 
seed was bought, and on the seventh of May, 1887, I 
put spade in the new venture. 

It wasn't really a spade, for a digging fork is better. 
On that seventh of May I bought a digging fork, hoe 
and steel rake at a total expenditure of $1.38, and the 
handkerchief garden began. I had previously bought 
for %\ 60 ten plants of the "Jessie" strawberry, and 
they had been kept in a friend's garden while absent 



8 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

from home during a part of April. By May seventh 
all were dead save five, and the first work done was to 
fork up a little spot in the garden and set out those 
five plants. On the same afternoon the pot of young 
lettuce plants was brought out to the ground and a 
place, four feet square, was forked up and made 
smooth. On this little bed was set out, about five 
inches apart, a few dozen lettuce plants. There were 
some left which were given away to a neighbor — the 
first crop for the season. 

The soil proved to be very tough and stiff, and one 
Italian man spent one day in trying to spade it over 
and nearly perished in the attempt. After that I did 
all the work myself, forking up the ground in little 
beds as it was wanted. This labor, with the tools and 
more seeds, brought the expense of the garden on the 
first of June up to $5.88. On the thirteenth of June 
the first lettuce and radishes were placed on my table, 
and the garden was credited with the first return, five 
cents for a fine head of lettuce and five cents for a 
bunch of breakfast radish. 

The price of a fair average head of lettuce in the 
village store on that day was five cents. I had had 
been paying that sum every day for two or three 
weeks, and often paid more. The day I picked that 
•head of lettuce I saved five cents on the bill at the 
store. It was perfectly fair and right to credit the 
garden with the retail price of lettuce for that day. 

My labor? Oh! yes! It cost labor to raise it, cost 
the seed and the flower pot, and^ all the little proces- 
sion of odd minutes spent in caring for the crop. 
These were worth money, if my time was worth any- 
thing at all. My time is worth something for about 
five hours out of the twenty-four. The time spent in 
caring for the lettuce plants was simply unavailable or 
" off time " of no value, except as a time for exercise. 



WHAT WAS DONE WITH IT 9 

Exercise then must be, and was it not better to raise 
lettuce for my table than to trundle an unprofitable 
lawn-mower, or walk the streets in idleness. Beside 
this, every hour spent in the garden was a sanitary 
gain and therefore a commercial gain that could not be 
expressed in money. I am certain that I buried four- 
teen distinct headaches in that garden in one summer 
at a decided gain in medical attendance. It is cer- 
tainly fair, then, to put the labor in the garden as 
free, because it would have been spent on something 
in any event. Besides this, the crop from the garden 
was a real money return for my labor. Within the 
next thirty days we used on our table or gave away 
thirty-five heads of lettuce at an avarage price of five 
cents, or $1.75. Some of the plants were transplanted 
twice and the space occupied by the mature crop was 
about twelve by three feet. 

I knew from former experience in the business that 
a garden could be made to pay. How much I resolved 
to find out, as soon as may be, and for this purpose 
opened an account with my little plot, which account 
was duly made up and balanced at the end of the 
year. Herein is set forth the pros and cons of the 
whole business. 

I paid out for labor, seeds, tools, etc., just $6.61. 
There was sent to my table, between June thirteenth 
and November first, vegetables of all kinds to the 
value of $25.82. Besides these vegetables there were 
produced sixty-four strawberry plants ( Jessie ) worth 
at the time, as the Jessie is a new variety, at least two 
cents each, or $1.28. This made a total return from the 
ground of $27.10. Deducting the cash paid out there 
was just $20.49 l^^t as the final result of my summer's 
work. 

Pitiful little tale, not worth recording. 

Think so ? • . . 



10 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN, 

It is small — only a trifling matter of $20.49. At the 
same time, $20.49 is $20.49 ^^^ most of us would ac- 
cept it with a cheerful heart. No one was the worse 
for my partnership with nature. It was bran new 
money and came out of no man's pocket. Our table 
was supplied with vegetables for over four months, so 
that no purchases (except one quart of onions) were 
made at the stores for this time. Besides this, not- 
withstanding a rather poor season, the vegetables 
were of a far better quality than could be purchased 
anywhere. As an illustration of this I may confess 
without a blush that I ate nine cucumbers a day for 
several weeks in entire safety and complete satisfac- 
tion. To buy so many for one person would demand 
considerable moral courage, not alone for the price, 
but from the doubtful character of cucumbers two 
days old. Mine often reached the breakfast table in 
less time that it took to make the coffee — hence their 
beautiful innocence. 

Did it pay ? Would it not have been better to lay 
the lawn to grass, and to trundle a lawn-mower or 
toss the light tennis ball ? Can't say. I am not a 
Tennis Courtier. But I do know that out of the ground 
comes health and wealth. Will you bring the children 
up forever on canned goods, when they might pull 
peas and good times out of the same ground. A home 
garden, even if it be only a patch like an extra large 
handkerchief, may in many a man's life-account 
make all the difference between profit and loss, 
between a dish of greens and a lot in the cemetery. 

From a recent report of the Bureau of Labor Statis- 
tics in Connecticut it appears that forty-six families, 
representing twenty-nine trades and living in different 
parts of the State, were, at the time of the report, 
financially unhappy. The total income of the forty- 
six families amounted in one month to $2,475.36. 



WHAT WAS DONE WITH IT. 11 

Their expenses for the same time reached $2,760.39— 
an average loss for each family of about six dollars. 

Income, $2 a day ; expenses, $1.98— happiness. 

Income, $2 a day ; expenses, $2.01— misery. 

There is a fine flavor of the Castanea vesca about this 
ancient joke, yet under its humor is a grim truth. 
May not the truth about these Connecticut families 
and many another in like unhappy plight be found— in 
the garden? The report does not say that these forty- 
six families had gardens, yet it must be observed that 
Connecticut is a State of small towns, and that a very 
large part of the population live in houses having 
more or less ground. The report does state, on the 
other hand, that one of the large items in the expenses 
of these families was for vegetables. These people lost 
$1.50 a week for each household. Could not that 
amount have been taken out of their gardens? 

It will be said that even if the people had a bit of 
ground it would not pay to cultivate it, that there was 
no time for the work in the garden, and that the in- 
terest or rent of the land would be too high to admit 
of profit. Is that so ? No. It is just the other way. 
In small towns where a house and ground are leased 
the rent is for the house, and the land is practically 
free, because if the value of the land becomes too high 
the houses cover the entire ground or a large part of 
it, as in a city block. Besides this every house must 
have space for light and air, and this space is or ought 
to be a garden. Certainly if a man has space round 
his house, and he suffers it to go to waste when it 
might produce food, he is morally responsible for the 
loss he puts on other men by reason of his unpaid 
debts. As for the time, it is only a question of get- 
ting up earlier or dropping the paper to tickle the 
ground with a hoe— and better business any day. 
Seeds, tools and fertilizers are cheap, and if there be a 



12 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN, 

will, there may be both time and a way. All of these 
families depended in part for their support on the labor 
of their women and children. Any twelve-year-old 
boy or girl could have put something from the garden 
on the family table and been all the better for it. As 
wages go it may be a question whether any young 
woman staying at home and minding the garden for 
three months would not earn more money than she 
could get in a mill or store. Her house would be her 
market, her family her customers, and she would reap 
all the profits. 

There are the young folks. Let no young man or 
young woman fancy their education complete with- 
out some knowledge of the growth of plants. Garden- 
ing is an accomplishment worth far more than the 
ability to struggle through a sonata on the piano — 
more worthy of a lady too. Labor with the hands, in 
partnership with nature, on the sweet and honest 
earth, is worthy any gentleman. If there be any 
among you having a boy or girl, halting between their 
school books and a wish to climb the Golden Stair, let 
him consider whether it be better to have hands 
browned in the glorious sunshine, a face freckled by 
the blessed winds, clear eyes keen for out-of-door 
sights and pleasures, a little dirt, beads of salt perspir- 
ation, perhaps with a touch of the backache, a jolly 
appetite and a grand power of sleep, or white hands 
folded under a coffin lid. 

It is the sum of these things that moves me to here 
set forth how any man, woman or child having a bit 
of ground may use it for their best health and the 
greater glory of their dinner table and pocketbook. 



^4. 



TIMES AND SEASONS. 



IS 



CHAPTER III. 



cime? AHD ?GA?on? 




HE moment we begin to 
study the lives of plants 
we are brought face to 
face with the universe. We 
cannot consider the very- 
small without considering 
the infinitely great. The 
life of every plant in our 
garden hangs on the laws 
governing the movements 
of the planets. Every mel- 
on vine that lifts its yellow cups in the wa'rm air looks 
to a star for inspiration, and its fruit claims acquaint- 
ance with the sun by the blushes in its melting heart. 
The roll of our planet to the east divides the day into 
light and darkness, wherein plants grow and sleep, 
work and rest. The swinging of our old earth around 
the solar spaces divides the garden into a time for 
birth and a time for death. These things we must 
understand before we plant a single seed. 

In all our country the year is divided into two 
parts, the growing season and the season of slower 
growth or of complete rest. On the twenty-first of 
December the sun casts its longest shadows at noon. 
After that day the days slowly grow longer and the 
nights shorter until the twenty-first of June. Then 
the shadows are shortened at noon, the days at their 
longest, the nights very short. Soon after there is, 
in the Northern States, a perceptible shortening of 



14 MY HANDK-ERCHIEF GARDEN. 

the day, which continues till the longest nights late in 
December again. 

All plants, whether out-of-doors or in the house, 
are susceptible to these universal changes. The spring 
or growing season begins on the twenty-first of De- 
cember. The winter or season of reduced growth, 
maturity, and sleep or death begins on the twenty- 
first of June. During the growing season the amount 
of light steadily increases and the plant thrives, be- 
cause, as it grows, it demands more light. When it is 
going to rest or approaching maturity, or death, it re- 
quires less and less light. The lives of all plants are, 
therefore, dependent on the changing amount of 
light resulting from that motion of the earth that 
gives us the seasons. 

At first sight it may seem that this cannot be true. 
In the latitude of New York nothing begins to grow 
out-of-doors before April, and all the garden plants 
are dead or asleep long before December begins. 
This, too, is true, yet I hope, in treating of certain 
of our common vegetables, to show you a number of 
experiments that will prove that this division of the 
year into two parts is correct. In California the 
growing season begins in November and ends in May. 
This, it is easily seen, is merely a variation, depend- 
ing on local causes, of this same law of plant growth. 

To get the best results from our garden vegetables, 
we sow the seed in the growing season and let the 
crops mature in the resting season, and this holds 
good, both under glass, where, as far as temperature 
is concerned, we are independent of the climate, and 
in Florida where there are no frosts. After the " re- 
turn of the sun " we can sow any seeds, provided it is 
warm enough either naturally or in a greenhouse 
or sunny window. The days are growing longer, 
there is more and more light, and the plant finds its 



TIMES AND SEASONS. 15 

growing stature met by increasing light and (out- 
of-doors) increasing heat. Seeds of certain plants 
can indeed be sown in the fall or under glass as late 
as December, yet they are struggling against the 
solar tide and are never so thrifty as when the " young 
flood " of the year sets in. Peas, that are short-lived 
plants, may be sown out-of-doors in August, and will 
mature a crop before frost, yet they do not display 
the vigor shown by plants of the same class planted 
in April or May. 

In the garden and out-of-doors the growing season 
is, of course, dependent also on the temperature. The 
spring, even in Vermont or Michigan, begins with the 
turn of the season, yet it is practically delayed out- 
of-doors for several months, or till the increasing 
light and sunshine raises the air to temperatures 
suitable for growing plants. In like manner the end 
of the growing season is forstalled by the return of 
cold weather many weeks before the actual end of 
the season at Christmas week. 

The first thing we have to decide is this : — Can 
we take advantage of the actual beginning of the 
growing season without regard to the beginning of 
spring out-of-doors ? If we can do so, we shall find a 
very great gain in the matter of early vegetables. 
Our object must be to get the greatest possible result 
from our garden, and to do this we must begin the 
spring work as soon as the season really opens. For 
instance, the tomato is a native of a tropical climate, 
where the warm weather begins early and ends late. 
In the latitude of New York the season out-of-doors 
is not long enough to bring its crop to maturity. 
We, therefore, gain time by starting seeds in the 
house soon after the season turns. The plant being 
sheltered from the cold and finding the spring really 
at hand, grows rapidly, and by the time the warm 



16 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

weather has arrived out-of-doors, is several inches 
high and well advanced in its natural life. In May 
we remove it from the house to the garden, and it 
thus reaches its full maturity even in our short out- 
of-door season. Cultivated in this way it produces 
its crop in August and September, whereas, if its seed 
were planted out-of-doors, it would be cut down by 
October frosts with only half a crop on its branches. 
It might be thought that the seed could be sown in 
the house in November and the crop thus be made to 
mature in June. This would not work, for until the 
spring really begins, it is nearly useless to attempt to 
sow seeds in even the warmest house. The young 
plants would be struggling against the solar tide and 
wasting their lives for nothing. 

These facts in regard to the divisions of the grow- 
ing year point to the first lesson in all horticultural 
work. Whatever we do, much or little, whether our 
garden be large or small, we must be forehanded. 
We must always look six months ahead, always lay 
out our work weeks in advance. If we wish tomatoes 
in August, we must plant the seed in March, and this 
means soil to put the seeds in, and to have good soil 
in March we must prepare it in November. Fore- 
thought and forework are essential to success in 
home gardening. 

To show what is meant by planning the work in 
advance, I may from my journal give a few notes as 
to what was actually done to prepare for the season 
of 1888. By the first of November the last of the 
celery in the garden had been taken up, and the 
ground was left clear of all perishable crops. At odd 
moments the soil was spaded up and left rough, thus 
exposing it to the frost and rain to kill the eggs of 
insects and the seeds of weeds, and by December the 
out-of-door work was fairly over. The five straw- 



TIMES AND SEASONS. 17 

berry plants had increased to over sixty, set out in 
rows about a foot apart each way. The garden was 
so exceedingly small that it was necessary to crowd 
them together to gain room, the intention being the 
next year to allow no runners to grow. On the 
twenty-first of November the ground was frozen hard 
and the strawberries were covered with dead leaves. 
Over this was laid some boughs and sticks to. keep 
the wind from blowing the leaves away. A friend 
had given me in October a hundred currant cuttings, 
half Red Dutch and half White Dutch. These had 
been carefully set out in a bed by themselves, and 
were covered with leaves and brush about the twen- 
tieth of November. A few dozen grape cuttings, also 
a gift, were placed in a wooden box and buried two 
feet deep in the ground. Meantime I had sifted two 
barrels of good soil, mixing it with bone-meal, wood- 
ashes and guano, and stored it in the cellar. Then 
the snow came and the season was at an end. 




18 



MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN; 



CHAPTER IV. 
PLAn? FOR UJORK 




T is curious to notehow quickly, 
after the season turns, there are 
visible signs of spring. No mat- 
ter if the snow does fly in the 
north. Far down in the south the 
spring has landed on our coasts. 
The wave of green grass will cover 
the land, creeping up the Missis- 
sippi Valley, and stealing along the Atlantic Coast. 
The snow that covers the northern half of the coun- 
try will retire slowly, sometimes pausing, sometimes 
advancing far down south, only to retreat farther 
than before. The buds soon begin to swell along the 
Gulf, and hints of spring are in the air. In the north 
we can only watch the slowly lengthening twilight 
over the snow-clad hills. By the tenth of January 
there is a perceptible lingering in the sunset colors, 
and, if we mark the spot where the sun goes down, 
we see he is already well started to the left, or south. 
My home is in the neighborhood of New York 
City, and these notes from the journal of my hand- 
kerchief garden refer to the out-of-door seasons 
there. If you live south of Washington or Cincin- 
nati, the work would come about ten days earlier. 
If farther south, still earlier. The best plan is to 
observe nature yourself. If the spring begins in your 
neighborhood in March, then you must be getting 
ready in January. The out-door season here begins 
in April, so my work begins in February. 

First of all — books. There is no greater pleasure 



PLANS FOR WORJC, Ifl 

in midwinter than to think over and plan for next 
summer. Nothing better for guide and companion 
on long winter evenings than a good book. Buy if 
you can, borrow if you must. Next to a good book, 
and, in some respects, better, is a good horticultural 
paper, and The American Garden is one of the best. 
If nothing better can be afforded, get the seedsmen's 
catalogues. Some of these can be obtained on appli- 
cation, others cost from ten to twenty-five cents, and 
are worth the money. Some of them are positively 
delightful. The descriptions of the seeds are so ap- 
petizing, and the pictures so inspiring, that we long 
for summer to come that we may enjoy these entic- 
ing heads of lettuce, these phenomenal beans, and 
gaze in awe upon our own monster squashes. The 
wise home-gardener will, of course, read the seeds- 
man's catalogue with a dignified reserve in regard to 
some of the more bewildering pictures and their 
legends, yet he will read to learn, for nearly all these 
books are well worthy careful study, for the fund of 
valuable information they contain. At the same time, 
don't read less than three, each from a different city, 
Chicago, Rochester, and New York, for instance, and 
read to compare opinions on the various standard 
sorts of vegetables. 

Of books, I would recommend the following: The 
" Home Acre," a series of eight articles, by the late 
E. P. Roe, and published in Harper's Magazine, be- 
ginning in March, 1886. As a handkerchief garden 
should include some fruit, ''Success with Small 
Fruits," by the same author, should be procured. It 
is a fine book, and beautifully illustrated. Price, 
$2.50, Dodd, Mead & Co., 755 Broadway, New York. 
" Harris' Gardening for Young and Old " is a good 
book for general purposes. Price, $1.25, Orange 
Judd Company, 751 Broadway, New York. Peter 



'^6 MY IIANDKERCHIEF CARD EM, 

Henderson's books are all first-rate, "Gardening for 
Pleasure," for your purposes, being perhaps the best. 
" Gardening for Profit " is also very good, though de- 
signed more for market gardeners than for handker- 
chief gardening. They are $2 each, and published 
by Peter Henderson & Co., 35 Courtland Street, New 
York. If possible, I would also have Mrs. Treat's 
"Injurious Insects of the Farm and Garden." Price, 
$2, Orange Judd Company, New York. It's a handy 
book to have in the house, in case of war within your 
borders. Reading, selecting varieties to plant, and 
planning out the work, may well fill the first six 
weeks of the year. By all means make a map or plan 
of your grounds, drawn to scale, so that you can see 
exactly what can be done. I did this in January, and 
laid out on paper every row of plants I wanted, be- 
fore ordering the seeds. Afterwards the plan was of 
great value as a guide in using all my garden space 
to the utmost economy. It was also useful in econo- 
mizing seeds, and in serving as a guide as to the 
quantities of each kind to be bought. It is also a 
good idea to preserve these plans to compare with 
the actual results when the crops are gathered. We 
are almost certain to plant too much of some things, 
and the plan will be a guide in next year's purchase 
of seeds. 

There is also another advantage in making a plan 
of the future plantings. To get the greatest possible 
return out of the soil we must produce two crops each 
year, or three crops in two years. Suppose your 
garden is the usual city back yard, 25 feet wide and 
60 feet long. Out of this bit of ground you must 
wring in one season all it is capable of producing. 
The ground must be stuffed with plants^not a foot^ 
not an inch being wasted. If lettuce plants will ma- 
.ture when planted 12 inches apart, radish or some 



PLANS FOR WORK. 



n 



short lived 
plant must 
grow between. 
If a cucumber 
vine covers 6 
inches at one 
time and 6 
feet at another 
time, spinach 
must occupy 
the space not 
used by the 
vine while it is 
small. If the 
earlypea vines 
bear fruit in 
July, then 
white turnips 
must mature 
in the same 
ground in Oc- 
tober. Like a 
circular race 
track, a gar- 
den to pay 
must consist 
of a series of 
"laps," one 
crop overlap- 
ping another 
and the soil 
bearing two 
crops between 
frost and frost. 
To make this 
clear thq ac- 






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22 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

companying diagram shows how the first lap is 
made. The entire space, 25x60, is laid out in three 
beds, with two footpaths, 12 inches wide, between 
them (and a good plan is to make these paths of 
plank). One bed, 11 feet wide in the centre, and 
two of 6 feet on each side, enables you to reach 
every plant with a hoe from the paths. On the plan 
these three beds are divided off into smaller beds, 
each for one or more crops. Beginning at the upper 
left hand (northwest) corner, the first bed is to con- 
tain six rows of the first planting of bush beans. 
(The area of each bed is marked in the beds.) Next, 
south of these, are eight rows of early beets; next 
come five rows of early carrots. These three beds 
are planted as early as the weather permits. The 
next bed, No. IV., is left empty till ten days after the 
first sowing of beans, and makes the second planting 
of beans. No. V. is planted thickly with spinach, in 
rows I foot apart. As soon as the plants are three 
inches high pull half of them out and send them to 
the cook. The little, half-grown plants make an 
excellent dish, and the plants left behind have more 
room. 

I tried this plan last year, sowing spinach very thick 
and making the first thinning when the plants were 
very small. It took 500 plants to make a dishful, but 
they were delicious. Two thinnings and one final 
picking of the half mature gave a very large return 
in a very few weeks from a small space. 

Bed No. VI. is to have four rows (north and south) 
of cabbages, the first row i foot from the path, the 
next two 3 feet apart and the last within i foot of the 
other path. Between each row i^ a single row of let- 
tuce plants, and betv/een lettuce and cabbages can be 
planted six rows of radish or spinach. Don't be 
afraid ; you cannot have too much, Pull it up as 



soon as it 
crowds the let- 
tuce, and pull 
up the lettuce 
as soon as it 
crowds the 
cabbage. In 
both cases the 
crops will be 
ready for the 
table. Bed No. 
VII. is arrang- 
ed in the same 
way, except 
that cauliflow- 
ers stand be- 
tween the rad- 
ish and let- 
tuce. BedVIII. 
is to contain 
six hills, first 
plantingof cu- 
cumbers, and 
the whole 
space is filled 
up,exceptnear 
the young cu- 
cumberplants, 
with spinach 
and radish. 
Bed IX. is the 
same idea ap- 
plied to late 
cucumbers. If 
it is prefer- 
red, summer 
squash can be 



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PLANS FOR WORK. 



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-34 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

used in the same way in place of the cucumbers. Bed 
No. X. is for potatoes that have been forced in the 
house. Bed No. XI. is for the first planting of peas, 
ten rows. No. XII. may be used for onion sets, six 
rows, and No. XIII. will carry early turnips, six rows. 
Bed No. XIV. is to be kept about ten days^ for the 
second planting of peas. The little square at the 
north end of the plot is a seed bed for celery. 

In sketching out in winter such a plan of work for 
the summer, you must look beyond the early spring 
and arrange for the crops that are to follow the early 
spring plants. With this is a plan of the same garden, 
showing what should follow in the various beds. 

For instance, bed No. I. may be followed by late 
sweet corn as soon as the peas are gathered. Bed 
No. II., in like manner, may be used for the second 
planting of sweet corn, the beets to be consumed as 
soon as half grown. The little bed of celery plants 
is to be cleared out before the tomatoes begin to 
crowd them, and the young plants moved to beds III. 
and IV. The tomato plants are shown in a row at 
the upper end of the lot. There will be ample room 
to get them in there, and if not, you can well afford 
to sacrifice a plant or two of the first crops in beds 
Nos. I., VI. and XI. All the beds are plainly marked 
with the second crops, and you will find it well worth 
while to compare the two plans, as they show how 
crops may be made to " lap " and how to get the 
greatest possible return from the ground. 

My own garden was of a somewhat different shape, 
yet I made careful sketches of the proposed crops, 
and in the summer of 1888 actually carried out, with 
some varieties, the succession of crops shown on these 
two diagrams, 




STARTING THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE, 25 

CHAPTER V. 
STARTinG Tf)G GARDGD ID 11)6 ROQ^G. 



O get the greatest possible return 
out of a handkerchief garden, we 
must forestall the growing season. 
It is the early potato that costs. We must 
gather our crops when they are high- 
^M^ priced in the stores, and thus credit the garden 
on a "bull market." It is better to stop buy- 
ing lettuce when it is seven cents a head than have 
to wait till it is down to three cents. The market 
gardener's chief profit isalways in these forwarded and 
high-priced crops, and we must be equally sharp after 
every early penny that grows in the garden. It is often 
thought that only those who have green-houses and 
hot-beds can thus hasten their early crop. Glass is 
always a great help, and it pays to use it, yet for a 
small home garden it is not necessary. Every house 
has one or more sunny windows, and these make the 
advanced garden where the early crops may be started. 
Can't have troublesome plants making a slop and 
dirt in your parlor ? 

Not the slightest need of it — if you know hovr . 
Besides, a neat box filled with young cauliflower 
plants is rather pretty and suggests the spring, long 
before the snow has gone. Even a box of young 
potato plants, thrusting up green fingers towards the 
light, may be quite a picture. Visitors will be sure 
to look at the cheery bit of greenery and ask in all 
innocence the name of the odd looking plants. 
Spoil your carpet and fade your curtains ? 



26 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

Spoil your children too ? What's the use of carpets, 
if the grand sunshine full of health and cheerfulness 
is to be shut out? Better burn, your old carpets and 
let the sunlight fall on bare floors. Better a row of 
plants in your parlor window, and delicious summer 
cabbages in July, than a best room shut up dark while 
the pale-faced children mope in your stuffy north 
kitchen. These things are not for fun. Its simply 
good business to hasten the handkerchief harvest and 
thus reap the big profits. Besides this, you have been 
carrying the children for weeks on canned goods. A 
taste of the first salad from the garden will save the 
doctor's bill and tone up every little stomach in the 
most encouraging way. 

Our house faced south-east, and this gave us four 
sunny windows down-stairs, two facing south-east and 
two south-west, in rooms warmed by a furnace. There 
was also one sunny window up-stairs, in a room part- 
ly warmed by a chimney, and the spare heat from the 
hall. In the two kitchen windows shelves were put 
up,, and in the parlor and dining-room small narrow 
tables covered with cretonne were used. A good idea 
in putting up shelves for plants in the lower part of 
a window is to have a piece of shelving made to fit the 
window and about eight inches wide. On the edge of 
the window seat screw two small brass hooks. Op- 
posite these, on the upper side of the shelf, fix two 
screw-eyes. On the under side of the shelf in the 
middle fasten a single iron bracket. To fix such 
a shelf in place, put the screw-eyes over the hooks 
and the bracket prevents it from falling. Such a 
device saves all nailing into the wood-work and the 
shelf can be unhooked and removed at any time in a 
moment, in case the maid wants to wash the windows. 
I first saw this little notion carried out by my friend 
and neighbor, Bronson Howard, who is as clever with 



STARTING THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE, 27 



tools as with the pen. Two shelves are enough in 
eachwindow, and I found a lath, covered with cretonne, 
as a concession to the aesthetic, and nailed across the 
window frame on a level with the top of the lower 
sash, made a good support for light window boxes. 

Flower pots will be needed for the windows, and it 
is well to have a few of different sizes for some of 
your work. It is, however, very much cheaper to use 
wooden boxes. In my own experience I found there 
is nothing better than a bundle of laths. It cost de- 
livered only 30 cents, and out of it I made dozens of 
plant and seed boxes of all shapes and sizes. 

The accompanying sketch shows one of my window 
boxes. It was made by cutting ten laths into lengths 




of 2 feet 10 inches, and nailing them together in two 
sets of three each (placed side by side) and one of 
four laths. They are fastened b.y the short crossbars 
and then the three sets are nailed together and the 
ends filled up and all made secure with small wire 
nails. To prevent splitting I keep the laths in a 
damp place till ready to be used. Such boxes are of 
a convenient length for the window and will just fit 
into a cold frame measuring -^y.d feet. For small 
seedlings I made boxes four laths wide and two laths 
high, and as long as the window sash, so that they 
would rest on the bar in the middle of the window 
and the top of the sash. If you wished, the side 
next the room could be covered with cretonne or 
painted some dark color^ and then filled with the 



28 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

pale green of young lettuce plants, they would look 
well in the best room of any home. 

From my experience with such window boxes, six 
boxes, occupying three sunny windows, would be 
sufficient to supply all the early cauliflower, cabbage, 
lettuce and tomato plants needed in a home garden 
intended to supply a family of three adults and two 
children. Supplemented with cold frames, covered 
with either glass or protective cloth, they would easily 
carry one thousand plants, or more than enough for 
a dozen handkerchief gardens. My experience is 
that, even without frames, all the plants you need for 
your home garden can be raised in your windows 
without a single cent's extra cost in the way of fuel. 
Your home must be warmed in any event, and the 
same heat will bring on a crop of young plants with 
only the cost of the seeds, the boxes, and a little 
rather entertaining work at odd moments for about 
six weeks in the early spring. 

My journal of work records that Early Jersey Wake- 
field cabbage and Extra Early Erfurt cauliflower seeds 
were planted in boxes on February 22d, and Hender- 
son's Snowball cauliflower planted March 9th. The 
first lot of plants were transplanted into other boxes 
by the middle of March, and were removed to the 
cold frame early in April, and were set in the open 
ground April 27th. The second plantings came a 
little later, and the first cauliflowers were placed on 
the table on July 4th, while the last were eaten on 
July 22d. The first cabbages were cut on July 15th, 
and they lasted well into August. To those who have 
never tried it, early summer cabbage, just beginning 
to head and fresh from the garden, will prove a new 
dish. You may have eaten something so-called and 
thought it very good. You haven't really been there, 
unless you have a garden of your own. 



STARTING THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 29 

: On February 38th I cut up a few " Vanguard " po- 
tatoes and placed the pieces in soil in a window-box 
by a south-east window in a room up-stairs where 
there was no fire. On very cold nights the box was 
placed on the floor near the chimney and covered 
with a newspaper. On April i6th the plants, now six 
inches high, were transplanted to a sunny corner in 
the garden, and the first potatoes were sent to the 
table on June 27th. 

Lettuce was planted on March 7th, and set out in 
the garden on April 3rd, and the first heads eaten 
June nth. Tomatoes with me were a failure, owing 
to damping off at the time of the blizzard in March, 
Still, plants from seed planted March 8th made good 
plants, and would have been set out in the garden in 
May, had it not been for an accidental upsetting of 
the box that compelled me to buy plants of the near- 
est florist. I did enough, however, to prove that 
tomato plants can be raised in the house without the 
slightest trouble. Among other things, I found that, 
peas can be forced in the house by sowing in boxes 
the last week in February, and transplanting to the 
ground when about four inches high. The crop 
from these transplanted peas came in about three 
days before peas planted in the ground, as early as 
the weather permitted. The gain was slight, yet in a 
favorable season I think it would be even better and 
would pay to* do, if you want extra early peas. The 
plants were set out quickly and with no particular 
pains, and not one died. 

Not having any material for a hot-bed or even 
glass for a cold-frame, I made a frame on the south 
side of the house protected from the north-winds, and 
for sash used frames made of two old screen doors, 
covered with a heavy grade of protective cloth. 
Under this frame I forwarded potatoes, cabbage, 



aO MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

cauliflower, tomato and lettuce plants, that were 
afterwards transferred to the garden. The frame 
measured about 2 feet 8 inches wide and about 18 
feet long, and held many hundred plants, in fact far 
more than the garden would contain, and two-thirds 
of them were given away or sold to the neighbors. 
On very cold nights the frame was covered with old 
gunny bags as an extra protection, and on all sunny 
days the frame was left uncovered, except in high, 
dry winds. While not as good as glass for some pur- 
poses, this protective cloth answers very well for 
forwarding early plants. Cabbage, cauliflower, pota- 
toes, peas and lettuce under it did very well. Toma- 
toes not quite as well, and another year I would keep 
tomato plants in the window or under glass sash. 
The frame cost for lumber 50 cents and for the cloth 
$2.16 = $2.66. 

Another advantage of such a frame is the protec- 
tion it affords to young squash, melon or cucumber 
vines. Seeds of squash planted in the frame came 
up among the other plants, and as soon as they 
needed more room, the nearest plants were removed, 
and finally the frame was wholly taken away and the 
vines spread naturally over the ground. 

These things were easily carried on at odd moments 
through February and March, and in April the reg- 
ular out-of-door work began. By May 7th the frame 
had been taken away, and its contents had been 
transferred to the garden. None of the work in the 
house or about the frames took more than an hour 
or two at any one time, and usually the time spent 
over the work did not exceed fifteen minutes twice 
each day, say once early in the morning and once 
towards night. Often it was very much less. None 
of the work required much strength or skill — only a 



STARTING THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. SI 

little patience and the right hand's turn of work at 
the right moment. 

Among other notions for forwarding early plants 
is a plant-hood or folding-tent to put over small 
plants. The device received the name of The Ameri- 
can Garden Cosey, and as it may also prove useful to 
others, a few directions for making one or more may 
be given. 

The materials of the cosey are protective cloth, 
common laths or other light wooden sticks, and com- 
mon carpet tacks and any stout twine or small cord. 
The first one made by the inventor was made out of 
four laths and 67 inches of a heavy grade of the cloth. 
Spread open on the ground to cover plants it pro- 
tected a space 4 feet long and 14 inches wide, giving 
ample room for a mature lettuce plant or strawberry 
plant in bearing, or any young plant not over 18 
inches high. When shut up it could be put in a space 
4 feet long, 18 inches high and i y^ inches wide. A 
dozen would be a light load for one hand. 

To make a single cosey for protecting a few plants, 
cut a piece 19 inches long 
and from this cut two tri- 
angular pieces, each 17 
inches wide at the bottom. 
There will also be material 
for one more in case another 
cosey is made. The dotted lines in Figure i show 
how the cloth is cut, the fabric being 36 inches wide. 

These two pieces will make the end pieces. To 
make the cover, cut a piece of the cloth i ^ / ^ yards 
long. For the frame, use four good straight laths. 
Place them in pairs and join each set with a crossbar 
at the end, 18 inches long. Nail firmly at the corners 
and put in a short brace at two corners to keep the 
frame in shape. Figure 2 shows one of these frames. 




32 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

Place the cloth on a table and then lay the two 
frames, with the crossbars together, one over the 
other on the cloth near one edge of the cloth. Th^n 
fold the cloth over the two frames and tack the edge 
to the lower edge, leaving about half an inch of the 
wood exposed. This is to prevent the cloth from 
touching the ground. Leave the ends (for a couple 
of inches) free till after the end pieces are put in. 

This done, turn the 
two frames over, 
stretch the cloth 
tight and nail it to 
lower edge of the 
other frame as be- 
fore. Then tack the cloth to the upper bar of each 
frame, placing the tacks on the wide part of the bar. 
Lastly, put in the two end pieces, lapping them over 
the frames and leaving a loose flap 2 inches wide at 
the bottom. When the ends are tacked on, finish the 
cover by drawing the ends over the edges of the end 
pieces to make a neat join and tack the ends down. 

When finished the cosey can be opened and will 
stand alone, making a rain-tight hood 4 feet long and 
14 inches wide. It can then be placed over plants, 
gently pressed into the soil to fit tight round the 
sides, and a little soil can be thrown on the flaps at 
the end to exclude the air. This is a single cosey for 
a few plants. To cover more, say a space 8 feet long, 
make two coseys and close up only one end of each 
and then place them end to end, the two open ends 
meeting -and thus making a continuous hood of the 
two coseys. To cover the crack between the two 
coseys, let the cover of one extend 2 inches beyond 
the open end. Set the first cosey in place over the 
plants first, then place the other in position, letting 
the flap cover the crack all rouad. In this manner a 



STARTING THE GARDEN IN THE HOUSE. 33 

long line of coseys can be used, each one having a 
flap to fit over the next with only the two end ones 
having the end pieces. Where the ends are left open 
in this way a stout string must be secured across the 
ends to keep the frames from spreading, in fact, act- 
ing as a tie-rod to hold up the roof. Figure 3 shows 
two coseys placed together. 

The cosey is one of those little notions that often 
prove of great value in m,any ways. It can be used 
to forward early crops in the spring and to protect 
late crops in the fall. It is wide enough to cover two 




rows of early beets, carrots or radish, or to protect a 
row of strawberry plants from the birds or to keep 
insects away from young melon vines. Such protect- 
ing hoods could, of course, be made of other shapes 
and sizes, but this size uses the cloth without waste, 
and the hood is easily picked up, carried away and 
packed snugly in the barn when not in use. The 
cloth will shed any rainstorm and will not mildew or 
decay in wet weather. It is also a protection against 
frost and is better than glass and only one-tenth its 
cost. Such a cosey, or even a long line of them, can 
be easily ventilated in bright sunshine by putting a 
block of wood or a stone under the edge, or, where 
two or more are used, by pulling them apart and 
leaving a small space between them through which 
the hot air can escape. 




34 AIV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN', 

CHAPTER VI. 
(JLO?G (fROPPinC. 

COMMON objection raised to a 
home garden is the expense and 
labor in planting and caring for it. 
My little patch, which measured 
a trifle over one-thirtieth of an 
acre, was a tough, hard clay, and 
yet, in addition to one man's labor 
for one day, it required only nineteen half days' work 
in April and ten half days in May. This included the 
preparation of the ground and planting all the early 
crops. In no instance was a whole day's work given 
to the place, and the time spent was usually from 
four to six in the afternoon. I think the entire work 
could easily have been done in ten working days. 
The entire outlay, aside from my own labor, includ- 
ing new tools, seeds, lumber, cloth and fertilizer was 
$14.79. The heaviest expense was for 200 pounds 
Mapes' fertilizer, $5.05 (delivered), and this was 
enough for the entire season, no other manure of 
any kind being used. Fourteen dollars and seventy- 
nine cents would buy quite an assortment of vegeta- 
bles, canned and otherwise, at the stores. Did it 
pay ? Was it worth the expense, labor and trouble ? 
It certainly did pay, as I propose to show at the sum- 
ming up of the season's work. Meanwhile it may be 
well to see what was obtained for the money. * By 
the first of June the following vegetables had been 
planted at different times : four kinds of peas, four 
kinds of radish, upland cress, chicory, leeks, potatoes, 



CLOSE CROPPING. 35 

two kinds of spinach, two of onions, two of squash, 
carrots, parsnips, two kinds of beets, two of bush 
beans, four of lettuce, four of cabbage, two of cauli- 
flower, one variety each of tomato and turnips, and 
three kinds of celery. Quite a bill of fare for a small 
place. There was, beside this, a small strawberry 
bed, a cutting bed of currants, and one of grapes, 
both of which received a part of the labor and fer- 
tilizer. In addition to all this there was a good flower 
garden, that demanded more or less attention, and 
produced a very large crop of flowers from the first 
of June till frost in October. The object of having 
this great variety of vegetables was twofold. In the 
first place, it is important to find out something con- 
cerning the character of the soil in a garden, and the 
only way to do it is to try many kinds. For instance, 
I learned that turnips and radishes were unsuccess- 
ful, lettuce and celery very successful, showing that 
the soil was best for the last, and that in the future 
it would be better to have more of one and less of the 
other. In the second place, to get the best return 
from a garden, attention must be paid to the daily 
bill of fare in the house. The selection of seeds and 
the planting must be so arranged that there is always 
a succession of things for the table, and not too much 
at any one time. Even with this great variety, we 
had in July eighteen heads of cauliflower ripe at one 
time, far more than could be used, and a dozen heads 
were given away to the neighbors. It was the same 
with summer cabbage, nearly two dozen ready at one 
time, a bigger crop than the home market could ab- 
sorb. Other things came to perfection in about the 
right quantities, and the table was usually supplied 
with three kinds of vegetables every day through the 
summer. After the first of June no vegetables, ex- 
cept potatoes, were bought, and after the thirtieth of 



36 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

June nothing whatever was purchased in the way of 
vegetables for many weeks, and had late potatoes 
been planted, the garden would have carried the 
house till December. 

. The labor spent through the summer was very 
light. Spreading the fertilizer, transplanting and 
raking over the soil to keep down the weeds, made 
the whole of the work, and none of it took over two 
hours on any one day. The crops were gathered 
every day, just before or after breakfast, and took 
only a few moments, when a little turn in the fresh 
air was more a pleasure than a task. The system of 
overlapping crops already described worked perfectly. 
On a plot 6xio feet I planted Savoy-leaved spinach, 
and when well up set out very close together between 
the rows three dozen early Jersey cabbages. Six 
pecks of spinach were taken off the plot, the two first 
pickings being "thinnings." The spinach com- 
pletely covered the ground and yet it was all 
cleared off before it interfered with the young 
cabbage plants. The final picking was like a 
transformation scene, the dark green of the 
spinach bed being in a few moments changed to the 
pale green of a cabbage patch. On another part of 
my grounds I planted spinach in long rows, and as 
soon as the plants appeared set rows of cauliflowers 
between the rows. The spinach was gathered as 
soon as the plants began to touch the cauliflowers. 
In another place a row of early cabbages was set out 
and on the same day spinach seed was planted be- 
tween each plant. The spinach came up and was 
gathered before it troubled the cabbages. By using 
the spinach when about half grown I had an excellent 
crop of early greens on the same ground occupied 
by other plants. Afterwards, as the cabbages were 
removed, late sweet corn was planted, so that 



CLOSE CROPPING. 37 

the ground actually produced three crops in one 
season. 

To still further carry out the plan of close cropping 
I planted summer squash between the rows of peas 
(second planting) and found no trouble from inter- 
ference, the peas being pulled up before the squashes 
wanted the room. I had also under way a trial of 
peas and beans (Laxton's Early and Early Mohawk), 
the beans being planted in hills between every other 
row of peas and the peas trained away from the 
beans. The experiment worked well. The beans 
were planted just as the peas began to flower. 

Another experiment in crowding the land was to 
plant onion sets in rows and quite thick in the row, 
and to plant cauliflower plants between the rows 
when the onions were about six inches high. The 
demands of the table gradually used up the onions 
by pulling up every other plant, and the open foliage 
of the onion did not seem to annoy the cauliflowers. 
Finally the onions all disappeared, and then the 
cauliflowers ripened and were pulled up and made 
room for celery plants in August. 

Lettuce plants set out from seed box in window 
were planted in April between young strawberry 
plants and were well headed before the strawberry 
plants began to run. Among other stray bits of in- 
formation I picked up the fact that if bush beans are 
injured, as mine were, by early cold rains, it is per- 
fectly easy to transplant the young plants to repair 
broken rows. In a home lot space is too valuable to 
allow broken rows to mature. It's better to trans- 
plant and use the space with something else. 

Another bit of crowding was arranged in this way: 
Two rows of spinach were sown (east and west) near 
the fence and parallel with it. As soon as well up,, 
early cabbages were set out between the rows. The 



88 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

spinach was pulled and eaten before it troubled the 
cabbage plants, and then tomato plants were set next 
the fence and trained up against it, and before the 
tomatoes were ripe the cabbage had headed and, 
when pulled, left all the space for the tomato plants. 
None of these crops seemed in the least degree in- 
commoded by the others, nor did they fail to give 
excellent returns three times during the season. In 
ordinary garden planting the plants would have 
been set in different places at a loss of space and 
labor in caring for them. The ground occupied by 
this experiment measured just 19x3 feet, and it pro- 
duced two pecks of spinach, twenty heads of early 
cabbage, and carried six large tomato plants that 
produced a fair crop of tomatoes. It is only by this 
system of close cropping that a handkerchief garden 
can be made to pay large profits, and it is the only 
plan I would ever employ in my own garden. If you 
mean to garden at all, do it in this way and wring 
from the ground all the return it can possibly give. 
Make the garden tell. 




A DISH OF SALADS. 



CHAPTER VII. 
A DISB OF SALAD?. 




OU have a little space at the 
back of the house. It is very 
small, so small indeed that it 
seems hardly worth while to 
use it. There's nothing in it, 
save a few rank weeds. The 
sun only shines there a part 
of each day. If weeds will 
grow, something better will 
grow. The actual surface may 
be only a bed along the fence, 
say 25x4 feet. Small as the 
border is, it can be made to 
keep your table in salads four months out of every 
twelve. 

First of the soil. Dig it up and see what it is like. 
As nearly all our cities grow outward into the coun- 
try, it often happens that the yards about the houses 
contain very fair soil If it is thin and sandy, good 
garden loam should be procured. Two one-horse 
loads should be enough. The florists can usually 
provide it for about $2 a load. If it is very heavy and 
is wet for sometime after a rain and cracks when dry- 
ing in the sun, it has too much clay, and this defect 
can be easily cured by the addition of about a barrel 
of sand from the mason's yard. If weeds grow, the 
soil is pretty nearly right, and can be made just right 
by the addition of manure from barn or stable. If 
this cannot be procured, use one of the standard fer- 
tilizers, together with ground bone or bone-meal and 
wood ashes. These things can be procured at the 
seed stores by the pound. If possible have the soil 



40 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN, 

spaded up roughly and left in that condition all win- 
ter. In the spring the fertilizers can be spread over 
the surface and forked in as soon as the ground is 
dry. Four pounds of commercial fertilizer, one pound 
of bone-meal and half a bushel of wood ashes will 
make a good mixture. There should be about five 
pounds more of the fertilizer on hand for use at inter- 
vals during the growing season. 

The thing to grow is lettuce. It is the most useful 
crop we can have, one of the most simple and easy of 
culture, and it is always acceptable on the table. If 
you can raise but one crop, let it always be some 
variety of lettuce. • If you have a sunny window, you 
will be surprised to find how many dozen heads of 
lettuce can be gathered from this mere ribbon of 
ground. The cost, including the fertilizer, will be 
very small, and the only labor of any consequence 
will be in spading up the ground. This ought not to 
exceed one hour's labor about six times each season 
and the few moments' attention once or twice a day 
from the first of March to the last of October. Much 
of the time, however, there will be nothing to do for 
weeks beyond the gathering of the daily crop. The 
entire time spent in caring for the lettuce will proba- 
bly be less than the time required to go every day to 
the store to buy your lettuce. 

The first planting in a flower pot or small wooden 
box should be about the first of March. These plants 
should be set out in the little bed by the tenth of 
April, setting the young plants in three rows one foot 
apart each way. One-quarter of a ten-cent package 
of seed will be ample for this first planting. A six- 
inch flower pot will easily hold it, and if three dozen 
plants are set out in the border, it will be enough for 
the first crop. One of the best varieties to use is the 
.''Boston Market." 



A DISH OF SALADS. « 

About the twentieth of March make a second sow- 
ing of the same quantity of seed in a box or pot in 
the window. The young plants will be ready to set 
out in the garden in about thirty days. As the first 
crop is still in the ground, set these new- plants in a 
small bed by themselves about three inches apart. 
They will stand in this bed till there is room made 
for tham by the maturing of the first crop. As fast 
as a head is ripe, pull it up and send it to the table, 
and stir up the soil and set a new plant from the 
small bed. Leave none of the space idle and keep 
transplanting at every opportunity that offers. It 
will be found that the crop will mature faster at 
times than it can be eaten. In this case the heads 
can stand for a day or two without injury. Small as 
the bed is, it will carry in various stages from four to 
seven dozen or even more through the early summer, 
and will easily give one head a day for the larger part 
of the season. With care it will be quite possible to 
have a head a day from June first to October first, or 
even later. If there is any gap in the supply, it will 
come in July op August, when the warm weather 
causes the plants to run up to seed. 

The third planting should be in the open border 
about the middle of April, transplanting three inches 
apart as soon as the plants- crowd each other, and a 
foot apart when the young plants again touch each 
other. For the fourth planting, which will be out- 
of-doors, use the "Defiance" lettuce, and this should 
be sown by the tenth of May. Plant the "Defiance" 
again on the first of June and twentieth of June. To 
extend the season, plant the Boston Market variety 
again on the fir^t of August, and for the last time 
about the fifteenth of August. These last two plant- 
ings will carry the crop well into October and keep 
up the supply till the frost cuts the plants down. 



43 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

The work of attending this series of crops is very 
simple. On the day following every rain, break the 
surface of the soil round the pl-ants by raking it 
lightly. A small steel rake, such as is often sold in 
"children's" sets" of tools, will be found useful. This 
raking will also keep the weeds down, but if weeds 
do appear, rake them up as soon as possible. In this 
way all the hard work of hoeing will be saved.. About 
every two weeks through the season sow some com- 
mercial fertilizer thinly over the surface of the ground 
just before a rain, and rake the soil gently to cover it. 
If very dry weather comes, shower the plants thor- 
oughly on a bright sunny morning about twice a 
week. 

It will be seen that this is very high as well as 
small culture, and it will be found to be very profit- 
able. Such a little border should carry four crops of 
at least five dozen heads each, and even at three cents 
a head, should save $3.60 on your grocer's bill. Tri- 
fling little return you think ? It is small, but the bed is 
very small. It may cost a few moments' trouble, and 
a little something for seed, soil, fertilizer, pots, etc. 
It may even cost more than you get the first year, but 
another season you should do much better. Try it 
and you will be convinced that it will pay, because 
the lettuce, with care, will be superior to any heads 
you can buy at any price in the stores. Fresh lettuce 
is one thing, store lettuce quite another. 

If a little more space can be used, say one or two 
square yards more, sow in the early spring seeds of 
parsley. It will be very welcome to the house-mother 
all through the latter half of the summer. To ex- 
tend the season take up some of the best plants in 
September, and they will grow in pots or boxes in a 
sunny window well into December, and furnish flavor- 
ing for soups, or dressing for fish. Another good 



A DISH- OF SALAD. ^3 

plan is to buy a package of any good celery seed 
and to sow it thickly in rows about a foot apart. As 
the young plants come up pull the larger ones as 
you may wish them for the soup-pot. Even when the 
plants are only a few inches high they make excel- 
lent flavoring for soups. Another very useful plant is 
the new Upland Cress. Sow half a paper broad-cast 
in a little bed, and as fast as you want it for dressing 
a dish of fish, pull up the larger plants. A little later, 
cut off the larger leaves as wanted. A few of the plants 
set out in the border in a row, and about eighteen 
inches apart will extend the supply. The first sowing 
should be in April and a second sowing late in May. 

If the family is small and less lettuce is needed, it 
will be a good plan to omit one row of the lettuce 
next the fence, and to set out in April a pint of onion 
sets. Plant them quite thickly, and by the first of 
June they can be pulled as fast as wanted for soups 
and stews. Pull every other one along the row, and 
then every other one again. In this way, in the course 
of a month, they will be slowly consumed, and those 
that remain longest in the ground will have room to 
grow. In crediting your garden with these small 
'* stew-greens," parsley, cress, onions and celery, find 
out the price at the stores. They are usually sold in 
mixed bunches, several kinds in a bunch, at from two 
to five cents a bunch. These may seem trifles, yet 
they will save many a trip to the store, and many an 
odd penny that goes to make up a dollar, and help 
wonderfully in piecing out a ^' picked-up dinner." 

Another useful plant is the Fetticus or Corn Salad. 
It can be sown early in the spring, and is ready for 
the table in about six weeks. Another plan is to sow 
it in rows a foot apart in September. When the 
ground freezes it must be covered with leaves or straw, 
and on approach of severe cold weather it must be 



44 



MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 



covered six inches deep. It is uncovered early in the 
spring, and is ready to cut in a very few weeks. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



UJI)AT TO DO lUITf) A (fITY YARD 




IVEN a city lot and we have an 
area of 25x100. The house occu- 
pies usually about 40 of the 100 
feet, leaving an open space in the 
rear of 25x60. Here the weekly 
wash must dry, and for this pur- 
pose there must be grass. The 
maid, when in the garden hanging out the clothes, 
would be heavy of foot on lettuce or roses, and so it 
usually happens the back yard produces nothing but 
grass. The usual plan is to stretch the lines across 
the yard from the fence, and, if the wash is large, the 
whole of the line is occupied close up to the fences 
on each side. This makes even a narrow border 
round the edge of the yard almost useless, and neither 
flowers nor vegetables are ever attempted. A better 
way would be to measure off the first six feet of the 
yard, next the house, for the whole width, and lay it 
with brick or stone for a walk or out-door sitting- 
room for summer evenings. Then lay off a space for 
grass in the center 17x48 feet. This would leave a 
border four feet wide on each side, and a border six 
feet wide at the opposite end from the house. The 
space in the center would be for the use of the maid 
on Monday, and for a pleasant play-ground for the 
children on other days. It would be also a lawn and 



IVHAT TO DO WITH A CITY YARD. 45 

a walk, from which to tend the borders. Instead of 
carrying the clothes line to the fence, have a post at 
each corner of the grass plot. 

Too much trouble for a few heads of lettuce. 
Think so ? Try it and you'll be glad you did try it. 

Such an arrangement of a city yard would give 
three borders, one 6x25, and two, each 4x48 = 534 
square feet. If the wash " is sent out," more space 
could be gained by making the two side borders each 
two feet wider. It would not be well to make them 
wider than this, as six feet is about as far as you can 
conveniently reach with a hoe or rake while standing 
on the grass. Many city yards that I have seen in 
New York are arranged in this way, except that there 
is a stone-covered walk eighteen inches wide around 
the grass plot, and leaving a very narrow border, 
often only. a foot and a half wide, next the fence or 
three sides. Such a walk is a waste of room, for the 
grass plot can be used for a walk at a wonderful gain 
in comfort. No man has yet invented a carpet equal 
to grass for feet weary of city side-walks. 

City yards are often used for flowers or for a few 
vegetables, and sometimes with ill success. There 
are two reasons for this. One is that the soil is usu- 
ally poor and thin or stiff with clay. You must have 
good soil, and this is neither very difficult nor ex- 
pensive to obtain, as is explained elsewhere between 
these covers. The other reason is the want of sun- 
light. The tall houses on every side cut off the direct 
sunlight for a portion of the day. This is not a fatal 
objection, if the right kind of plants are selected. 
There are plants that will flourish in partial shade, 
and by using these very nearly as good results can 
be obtained as in the best country garden. 

The first thing to consider is the aspect. Which is 
the sunny end of the place, which the shady part ? 



46 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

If the house is at the south end of the yard, its shadow 
will be on the walk and the warm sunny corners 
will be at the opposite end of the yard. The plants 
needing the most light will therefore go to the north 
end. As the morning sun is better than the after- 
noon sun, the west border (facing east) is the next 
most valuable place. The aspect is, therefore, of 
value in this order : First, the north border ; then the 
west border, and, lastly, the east border. The north 
border is best for tomatoes, cucumbers or melons, 
the west for beets or carrots, and the east border for 
celery or lettuce. 

In such a very limited garden it will not be worth 
while to attempt a great variety of plants. It is too 
small to carry all that would be needed in a family of 
five, and the best that can be done is to have a few 
kinds only, and of these only those that will thrive in 
partial shade. One of the first things to set out in 
spring should be rhubarb. Six good roots planted 
near the north end of the west border will be enough. 
This is in the nature of a permanent plantation, and 
once set will last for years. The roots must be bought 
quite early in the spring when the rosy tips of the 
leaves are just showing above ground. The roots are 
usually cut into small pieces, and they should stand 
in the center of the border three feet apart. The 
soil should be made as rich as possible before plant- 
ing, good barn manure being best. If it cannot be 
obtained, use commercial fertilizers at intervals dur- 
ing the summer, as the plants grow. Set the roots in 
the ground with the growing point just under the 
surface. As the plants grow let them spread as they 
will. Do not cut any of the stalks the first season. 
When the flower stalks appear cut them off, as they 
only tend to weaken the plants. Rake the soil round 
the plants after every rain, or as often as weeds ap- 



WHAT TO DO WITH A CITY YARD, 47. 

pear. The first crop of stalks can be taken off the 
second spring. Pull them off with a sideways twist 
to break the stalk close to the root. If convenient 
cover the roots in the fall with coarse stable manure 
and rake it off clean in the spring, as soon as the 
frost leaves the ground. 

If your space is crowded, a single row of lettuce 
might be put in front of the rhubarb plants in the 
spring, before the leaves begin to spread. 

For the north end of the plot tomatoes will be use- 
ful. Buy the plants already started in pots. Six or 
seven plants can be placed at equal distances across 
the end of the bed next the fence. As they grow, it 
will be found a good plan to give them a large trellis 
or guard for support. One good way is to support a 
barrel hoop on three small stakes and to put the hoop 
over the plants so that the heavy branches will spread 
over and lean upon it, and carry the fruit above 
the ground. Another good idea is to get two light 
wooden strips and place one on each side of the six 
plants and support them at each end with stakes 
driven cross-wise into the ground. Henderson and 
other seedsmen advertise a very good tomato trellis 
hinged at the top, and ready for immediate use in 
the garden. The main thing is to keep the heavy 
branches off the ground, and a few sticks and a lit- 
tle gumption will do it. 

Tomatoes are very cheap and it might be said that 
there are more profitable plants for a city lot. This 
is true, and yet it will.be found an advantage to cul- 
tivate tomatoes, as the fruit is best when quite fresh. 
In the early spring, while plants are small, the first 
three feet of this border, next the grass, can be used 
for lettuce, spinach or radish. 

If preferred this warm border can be used for, 
cucumbers or melons (not both.) The cucumber is a 



48 MY HANDKERCniEF GARDEN. 

vine that can be easily trained on a trellis, and in a 
garden where space is so valuable, it will be found a 
good plan to set up a trellis of galvanized wire fence- 
netting. It is about a yard wide, and only enough is 
needed to reach across the lot. It should be sup- 
ported on blocks from the fence to leave a few inches 
clear space behind it. When the posts are on this side 
of the fence it could be nailed to the posts. Six hills 
of cucumbers planted close to the netting would fill 
the space, and the young vines, when they are once 
led up to the trellis, will quickly run all over it, bear- 
ing their fruit and flowers in the air, instead of on 
the ground in the usual way. The fruit will hang 
from the vine and ripen on the fence just as well as 
when lying on the ground. If there are more vines 
than will fill the trellis, let them spread over the 
ground in front of it. 

The culture of the cucumber and its cousin, the 
melon, is very simple. Have the soil made rich and 
soft, and sow about twenty seeds in an open ring or 
a circular patch and cover thinly with soil pressed 
down firmly. As they appear, pull the weakest ones 
out. Wait a week or ten days and then pull up all 
except six in each hill or group. In this way the ex- 
cess of plants serves as insurance against insects. 
Some will be sure to be destroyed, and by having too 
many the crop can be saved. The after-culture con- 
sists in keeping the ground raked after rains till the 
plants become so thick that nothing more can be 
done. The vines should be examined every morning 
and all the ripe fruit removed, as a single cucumber, 
left to mature and ripen its seed will injure the 
vine far more than two dozen cut when half grown. 
The White Spine Cucumber will be found a good 
standard kind. 

It seems to be a law in plant growth that, if any 



WHA7' TO DO WITH A CITY YARD, 49 

plant is allowed to mature its fruit and perfect its 
seeds, it is content and will make no special exertion 
to bear more fruit that season. If its flowers or half- 
ripe fruits are removed it endeavors to produce more. 
If those in turn are taken away it will again flower, 
and seek to produce fruit and seeds. This is very- 
marked in the case of annuals, like the cucumber and 
sweet pea. If the flowers are constantly cut, the 
vine will bear a great many flowers and keep in 
bloom for several weeks. If the first flowers mature, 
and pods and seeds are allowed to ripen, the crop 
of pea-blooms will be very small and the time of 
blooming short. The more cucumbers you cut, the 
more you will have. Better cut your cucumbers 
every day and give them away, for the more you give 
the more you will have to keep. Selfishness never 
pays as a regular crop. 

For the east or most shady border th6 best things 
to grow are lettuce and celery. Two crops of lettuce 
(see Chapter VII.) can be taken off the border before 
the celery is put in. Buy the dwarf kinds of celery 
at the nearest florists, and set out the plants in a 
single row, about ten inches apart, placing the row in 
the middle of the border. The culture is very easy 
when the one idea on which it is based is understood. 
The celery is a plant that is greatly improved by 
growing in the dark. The tough, green stems become 
crisp and brittle in the shade, and any method by 
which the stalks are protected from the light will 
give good celery. A bunch of plants growing thickly 
together in a mass, will so shade each other that 
those in the center will be blanched naturally. The 
most simple way to secure the blanched stems is to 
cover them with earth. This is called "earthing" or 
" bunching up," and it is nothing more then piling 
the soil against the plants as they grow. 



60 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

The young plants should be set out between the 
sixteenth of July and the first of August, and for the 
first month the culture consists in keeping the ground 
loose and free from weeds. If the soil is very dry 
and there is little rain, copious waterings twice a 
week will be found useful, as the celery is by nature 
a swamp-haunting plant and a great lover of water. 
In ordinary seasons and in a clay or peaty soil water- 
ing does hot seem to be necessary. I have raised on 
a clay soil fair crops without it, though I cannot say 
how much better the result would have been if a hose 
had been brought to help the hoe. 

For about a month after setting the plants they 
appear to stand still and to make no growth. They 
are really extending their roots, and as soon as cool 
weather comes in early October they grow rapidly. 
As soon as this growth begins the first earthing-up 
must be done. One way is to tie all the stems of g 
plant together in a bunch, by tying a string just under 
the leaves. Another plan is to simply bunch the 
stems together with the hand while the soil on each 
side is pulled up against the plants, to bury them 
about half their length. Two weeks later more soil 
is pressed up against the stems till only the tops are 
visible, banking it up into place with the back of the 
spade. The plan of tying together with a string is 
best, as it can be done by a boy very quickly and 
once tying saves all further handling of the plants, 
and causes the center stems to blanch even before 
covered with earth. 

Another plan is to tie all the plants in a row and 
then to set boards on edge close to the plants, one on 
each side, and thus to exclude the light without earths 
ing up. The boards are easily kept in place by stakes 
driven in the ground, and the boards tend to make 
the plants taller as they stretch up to find the light 



WHAT TO DO WITH A CITY YARD. 51 

The boards should lean against the plants, and may- 
be kept in place by simply piling the earth against 
them. White Plume and Golden Dwarf are good 
white kinds, and New Red a good crimson variety. 

Another crop useful in such a small garden would 
be spinach. Two sowings in the spring and one in 
the fall would be best, as city yards are apt to be in- 
tensely hot in the middle of the day through the 
summer months. Either of the borders would do, 
and the first sowing should come as early as the 
weather will permit and the soil is dry. Make shal- 
low drills in the soil with a hoe and scatter the seed 
quite thickly. Cover it lightly and press the soil 
down firm. The rows can be as close as the width of 
your hoe. As soon as the plants are three or four 
inches high, pull out the larger plants and send to 
the cook. Twp weeks later all can be gathered as 
fast as wanted. In my garden in 1888 the first plant- 
ing was made April i6th and the first crop was gath- 
ered May 26th. Two crops of spinach can be taken 
off before it is time to set out the celery. A fall crop 
should be sown in any spare place that can be found 
about September ist. This crop, too, can be planted 
•quite thick and two gatherings made, one to thin put 
and the second to clear off what is left. Of course it 
may happen that more can be gathered each time 
than is wanted. The idea is simply to pick the 
spinach twice during its growth, at such intervals 
and in such quantities as may be needed. My fall 
crop in 1887 was planted September 6th, and was all 
consumed before the ground froze hard in November, 
being gathered in all six times, giving about a peck 
at each picking. In such a city-lot garden the whole 
of one of the side borders would not be too much 
space for fall spinach, two sowings being made, one 
about August 15th and the second September ist. 



53 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

Another good plan would be to plant in September, 
thin out the plants and then to cover them over with 
old hay or straw for the winter. The only objection 
is the difficulty of getting suitable material to cover 
the plants, and the litter it would make in a place 
that the house-mother would prefer to see kept ex- 
quisitely neat. You can't run a city lot like a market 
garden, and the best plan is to consume the fall 
spinach and not attempt to carry it over the winter. 
The best variety to use here is the Savoy-leaved 
Spinach. 

In addition to these varieties of vegetables, rhubarb, 
cucumber, tomato, celery, lettuce and spinach, some 
space should be given to the small green crops, pars- 
ley, cress, onion sets, etc., described in the preceding 
chapter. These crops will pretty closely fill the three 
borders, particularly as a liberal quantity of celery 
and lettuce will be needed. One of the side borders 
entirely devoted to celery will not be too much, as a 
family of five can easily dispose of the six dozen 
heads it will contain. The crop can be stored in the 
cellar and kept for use through the early part of the 
winter. With a little care the spinach crop can be 
made to fill all gaps left by the removal of other' 
crops. Judicious crowding and double cropping are 
essential in such a doyley garden as this. 



J4. 



T 



A CITY FRUIT GARDEN, 



53 




CHAPTER IX. 
A UTY FHQIC GARDGH. 

HERE are many small home 
lots with excellent soil and 
a good sunny aspect, where 
the tenant or owner would 
gladly have a garden were 
there time to attend to it. 
This spring work of plant- 
ing, this weeding, raking, 
re-planting and frequent 
harvesting demands more 
time than can be afforded. You are busy in town all 
day, and it is only once in a while that half a day can 
be spared for the garden. The 25x60 yard is there, 
but it must be laid down to grass, because that 
requires only one planting in several years, and the 
mowing need only take an hour or so twice a month. 
The grass is a cheap carpet on which to spread the 
clothes, or it is the children's play-ground, and it is 
not necessary to have it kept like a lawn. 

Still, if it could be made to pay a return, it would 
help wonderfully in the little matter of living ex- 
penses. There are crops that would just meet your 
wants, crops that require only one planting in two or 
three years, and some that will even last half a life- 
time. There is asparagus and rhubarb, and perhaps 
some of the small fruits. In such a small garden it 
would not be well to plant all the small fruits, be- 
cause some kinds require too much room and show' 
an unruly spirit in the matter of running about the 
estate. The fruits for your purposes would be the 



54 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

Strawberry, currant and grape. These would give 
something for the table from early summer till late in 
the fall, excepting for about three weeks in August 
and September. This gap might be filled by rasp- 
berries and blackberries, but these plants would.be 
unsuitable for so small a place. 

In order to utilize your space to the utmost advan- 
tage and to place your crops in the best aspect, they 
should be arranged in the following order: First 
(supposing your plot to lie north and south) comes 
the rhubarb at the north or warmest end, as it is the 
first thing to start in the spring and needs the benefit 
of the sun and shelter. Next, the asparagus, then 
the strawberries, and, lastly, at the south or shady 
end, the currants, as they will submit more gracefully 
to the shadows than any of the others. The grapes 
will extend along the fence on each side. The ac- 
companying diagram shows how the different crops 
may be mapped out. At the northern end next the 
fence is a bed three feet wide the whole width of the 
lot. This will contain five plants of rhubarb. Two 
paths, each two feet wide and placed three feet from 
the side fences, give access to the other beds. Be- 
tween the paths and next the rhubarb bed is a space 
15x15 feet that may be set out as a permanent aspara- 
gus bed, the plants standing in rows three feet apart. 
Next to this is a space 15x25 feet that should beset 
out with strawberry plants, placed one foot apart 
each way, there being room for three hundred and 
fifty plants. South of these is room for a dozen cur- 
rant bushes, in three rows of four each. At the sides 
are the grape borders, three feet wide the whole 
length of the lot, there being room for sixteen vines, 
eight on each side. 

This arrangement of the lot will give the greatest 
space to the plants and the least trouble in caring for 



A CITY FRUIT GARDEN. 



55 



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them, with 
readyaccess 
to all the 
beds. Once 
planted, the 
rhubarband 
asparagu s 
will remain 
for ma n y 
years with- 
out replant- 
ing. The 
grapes will 
not require 
re -planting 
for at least 
ten years, 
and the cur- 
rants will, 
with care, 
keepinbear- 
ing about 
six years. 
The straw- 
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last two 
years, and 
with care 
three years, 
without re- 
newal. By 
using these 
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ridof alarge 
part of the 
constant re- 



56 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

planting of the vegetable garden, and the investment 
once made pays its little dividends year after year. 
Of course the first cost will be much greater than for 
seeds, but this is offset by the fact that the invest- 
ment is made for years instead of weeks. At the 
regular catalogue rates the. rhubarb will cost about 
$i.oo ; 75 asparagus plants, $i.oo ; 350 strawberries, 
$10.50 ; 12 currants, $1.50, and 16 grape vines, $8.00. 
This would be $2.2.00 for the whole. The labor of 
planting, fertilizers and tools would be the only addi- 
tional expense, and once set out all expense would 
cease for at least two years, except the very slight 
expense of keeping the place in good order. From 
November 15th (in latitude of New York) to April 
15th there would be absolutely no outlay whatever. 
On the other hand, we must forego all returns till the 
second year, and even then be content with only par- 
tial returns from a portion of the investment. On 
the third year everything would pay a dividend, and 
with the exception of the strawberries continue to 
pay every year for at least three years, and for the 
grapes, asparagus and rhubarb for from ten to twenty 
years to come. It costs more at first, yet in the long 
run the fruit garden pays as well, if not better, than 
the kitchen garden. 

The care and culture of such a handkerchief fruit 
garden is simple and inexpensive, and when once 
planted consists chiefly in keeping the ground clean 
and open to the air. As in building a house, the first 
care is to get a secure foundation, so in our fruit 
garden the first consideration is the soil. It must be 
good and it must be dry. A clay soil, where the rain 
lingers on the surface after every shower, will never 
do, and if there are little pools to be seen for an hour 
or two after the rain has ceased to fall, the place 
must be drained, or it is better not to plant anything. 



A CITY FRUIT GARDEN. 57 

How your lot is to be drained depends on so many 
things peculiar to your soil and location, that you 
must trust wholly to yourself or some competent 
neighbor who is familiar with the lay or slope of your 
land and its immediate neighborhood. However, as 
nearly all our city lots are Carved out of fields and 
orchards in suburbs and " additions," there is usually 
no need of drainage. Besides, water in the soil is quite 
as bad for you and your babies as for your plants, and 
it is not to be presumed you would consent to buy 
or build a house on wet land. As for the soil itself, 
if not good, it can usually be made good by carting 
in good soil from some field or pasture. Commonly, 
in newly made districts in the borders of our towns 
and cities, the soil is good enough for all practical 
purposes. All that it will probably need will be 
plenty of manure. Twenty-five dollars' worth will 
be little enough, and if you can afford to spend twice 
as much, it will not be too much. We are planting 
now once for all, and by a liberal expenditure now, 
money will be saved in the future. If you have pos- 
session of the place in the fall, by all means have the 
soil carefully spaded up and left rough through the 
winter. By so doing, the soil is exposed to the frost 
and air and broken up fine, and eggs of insects are 
destroyed. All the plants, except the strawberries, 
can be planted in the fall, but as there is a certain 
amount of risk from injury by ice, it is better to 
plant in the spring. The only advantage of fall 
planting is the time gained, as every one is in a hurry 
in the spring, and unless you give your orders early, 
the plants may arrive late or in bad condition. 

Let us look at each crop in detail for a moment. 
The rhubarb will be the first thing to start in the 
spring, and the roots must be set out as early as pos- 
sible after the frost leaves the ground. For this 



58 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

reason it is perhaps better, if just as convenient, to 
set this crop in the fall. The soir should be forked 
up and made free from stones, and heavily manured. 
If spread over the soil two or three inches deep, it 
will not be too much, as this plant has a tremendous 
appetite, and the bigger the dinner you give it, the 
bigger the rhubarb pies it will give you. The plants 
are mere clumps of fleshy roots and should be set at 
equal distances across the end of the lot, and just 
deep enough to have the top or crown covered about 
three inches. Spread straw or manure over the surface 
after the planting, and leave the bed till spring. If 
planted in the spring, the roots must be obtained 
very early and set in the ground with the deep red 
buds just under the surface. The after-culture the 
first year is to merely keep the weeds down, and there 
is no better way to do this than to rake the soil over 
lightly after every rain. When flower stalks appear, 
cut them off as soon as they rise above the leaves. 
In the fall spread more manure over the surface 
around the plants, as soon as the leaves die and dis- 
appear. The following spring the first crop of stalks 
can be gathered. Do not be too greedy. Give the 
plants a chance and gather only a few from each, 
rather than a quantity from one. Two stalks from 
each plant at a picking is enough, and once a week 
through the season is all you should expect. After 
that year perhaps twice as much can be taken every 
year for many years to come. Take good care of the 
plants, feed them well, and they will care for you and 
supply perhaps the best early crop you can give to 
the young folks round your table. 

The asparagus bed needs a richer and deeper soil 
than any other crop. There is little danger of plant- 
ing in too rich a soil, for you must remember that 
the bed is to be laid down once for all, and need not 



A CITY FRUIT GARDEN. 59 

be re-planted for twenty years. Spring is the best 
time to plant and the earlier the better, for the ■ 
asparagus is among the first to stir with life after the 
frosts have gone. The roots should be carefully 
planted in rows three feet apart, taking pains to 
spread them out carefully in a shallow trench, about 
a foot apart in the rows and with the point of the 
root buried about three inches. As soon as the shoots 
appear above ground, keep the soil light and open 
till the shoots begin to shade the ground with their 
tall feathery plumes. The weeds will then die out in 
the shade, and the last part of the season the bed will 
require very little attention. Do not cut any stalks, 
but let all grow as they will. Your object the first 
year is to get good strong plants, and you must wait 
till the following spring for the first dividends laid 
on the dinner table. 

Strawberries are also good eaters, and it will pay 
well to treat them well. Your object is to obtain the 
greatest possible return from the smallest space, and 
to do this the best plan is to set the plants one foot 
apart each way, covering the entire space between 
the walks. As the plants are so near, you must not 
trouble them to search for food. Each plant must 
be so well fed that it is content to stay m its own 
limited spot of soil and not send its roots wandering 
off in search of something to eat. Neither must any 
plant be allowed to send out runners. In June and 
July, when runners appear, they must be rigorously 
ciit off. If taken in hand early, when the runners are 
soft and green, they can be pulled off without trouble. 
A girl of ten ought to keep all the runners down, by 
going over the bed two or three times a week for 
about a month. A narrow rake is the best tool to 
keep the weeds down between the plants and to keep 
the sail loose after' fain?. = When the ground freezes, 



60 MY HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

in December, the whole bed must be well covered 
with leaves or straw. The following spring it should 
be removed as soon as the frost is out of the ground, 
and then be put about the plants when the crop be- 
gins to ripen and again taken off after the crop is 
gathered. 

The twelve currants should stand in three rows, 
about three feet apart and four in a row. The first 
year all that is needed is good rich soil and constant 
regular culture. In winter the plants take care of 
themselves, and all that is needed is to leave the soil 
loose and well broken'up the last thing in the fall. 
The second year a small sample crop may be gathered 
just by way of encouragement. The third year the 
bushes will bear abundantly. The bushes are greatly 
benefitted by careful training. Cut out each spring 
all stems that cross other stems or that crowd each 
other, and all stems that show signs of decay or 
injury from any cause. The chief object is to have 
open, well shaped and rather short bushes with clean, 
healthy stems and free from suckers or adventurous 
shoots springing up round the roots. A single stem 
with a branching head is perhaps the best form. 

The grapes should be planted in the spring as 
early as convenient, making good large holes in the 
soil to receive the roots, and spreading each root 
out carefully in its proper place. An entire book 
might be written on the training of grapes. There 
are as many ways as there are varieties, and it will be 
a good plan to read some good book on the grape 
and its culture before planting. The idea on which 
all systems of training the grape vine are based is 
very simple. The fruit is borne on green wood of 
the present season that grows out of ripe wood that 
grew the previous season. Your object must always 
be to have good ripe wood from which next year will 



A CITY FRUIT GARDEN: 61 

come the green shoots bearing the crop. Your young 
plant will consist of a short stem with half a dozen 
buds (more or less) and a bunch of roots. In the 
spring nearly all of these buds will swell and send 
out tender young shoots. Wait till all are firmly 
started, and then with the fingers break off all but 
the largest and best nearest the ground. Do not use 
a knife, as the young plant may " bleed " or lose sap 
and be injured. Then carefully train this one shoot 
straight up the trellis or fence, tying it up as it grows 
and letting it grow as long as it will. About the middle 
of August pinch off the tip end of the growing shoot, 
and the green wood will slowly harden or "grow 
ripe" through the fall months. If side shoots start 
out from this stem, pinch the tips of each as soon as 
they appear to prevent them growing any longer. 
Better one good, stout shoot or cane, thickly covered 
with buds, than six poor, thin shoots with weak buds. 
After the leaves faU, this shoot should be cut down 
to about three feet from the ground. You now have 
a short, stout cane, from which will spring next year 
both fruit-bearing shoots and new canes for another 
year. 

Having obtained a good cane with a dozen buds, 
any system of training may be followed that you 
fancy. Permanent canes may be trained along the 
bottom of the trellis, or spread over it in a fan-shape, 
or in any other way you please, provided always there 
is space between the canes for the new crop of wood 
that bears the fruit crop. In such a small fruit garden 
perhaps the best plan is to train up a single straight 
cane to the top of the fence, and to keep it there year 
after year. The bearing shoots will spread out three 
feet on each side, and the eight vines on the fence 
will cover all the wall space you have. The training 
of grape vines is an accomplishment well worth study- 



■62 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN, 

ing. It demands very little labor and gives an ad- 
mirable chance to show that you are skillful at artistic 
effects. Nothing is more pliable than a grape vine, 
and with taste and a little patience your fence can be 
made to produce a beautiful effect, to say nothing of 
big crops. A neglected or ill-trained vine is simply 
ugly and unproductive. A well-trained vine is both 
a picture and a continued source of pleasure. Even 
in winter the well proportioned canes, neatly tied to 
the trellis, can be made quite effective as a bit of wall 
decoration. 

This use of a city yard for a fruit garden costs more 
at first than if the lot is used for a vegetable garden, 
yet it pays quite as well, as the crops, when they do 
come, are worth more and last longer. The whole 
plantation is in the nature of a permanent investment 
in pleasure and profit. The rhubarb, asparagus and 
grapes, will produce with care regular crops every 
season for many years, and even the currants will not 
require renewal more than once in ten years. The 
strawberry bed will be the least permanent, as it 
cannot be kept in good condition more than three or 
four years. On the other hand, it is easily renewed 
in one season and by a judicious system of re-plant- 
ing not a single crop need be lost, though occasion- 
ally only half a crop will be gathered, while a portion 
of the bed is being renewed. The best way to do 
this will be to dig up and throw away half the plants 
as soon as the crop is gathered, and to re-plant the 
ground in August. These plants will give a crop the 
next year, when the rest of the old plants can be 
renewed in the same way. It is the same with the 
currants. As soon as the bushes begin to show signs 
of giving out, pull a part of them up and set new 
plants. It will be found a good plan to put a few 
cuttings in the ground each fall for new plants. In 



THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 63 

a year they will be well rooted, and can be used to 
take the place of any of the old plants that are worn 
out or injured by insects. 



CHAPTER X. 




TBG (fon(z:La?icn of 

TF)G UJRCLG mATTGR. 

^^CTOBER days, and every gar- 
den finds its crop of facts, 
fruits and figures. My hand- 
kerchief garden in this year 
of grace, 1888, gave a.variety 
of good things each in its season, all 
of which were eaten with a cheerful 
spirit. And herewith are the facts 
and figures. There were dry days 
and wet, total failures and big suc- 
cesses, weeds and bugs, lots of good, 
hard work, and altogether a fair return for the labor 
and money spent. Once or twice the crops overran 
the home market. The Early Jersey Wakefield and 
Early Summer cabbages ripened at about the same 
time, the first heads coming July 15th and the last 
being disposed of August 8th. A family of three can 
hardly master twelve heads ripe at one time, and as 
the industrious slug was always ready to lend a hand 
a large part of the crop was sacrificed on the altar of 
friendship. It was the same with cauliflowers. 
Eighteen Early Snowballs at one time was a little 



64 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

too much of a good thing, and the surplus was pre- 
sented to appreciative neighbors. 

Herein is one of the great advantages of a home 
lot — it tends to cultivate a generous heart in the gar- 
dener and a thankful spirit in his friends. You are 
pretty sure to have at times more than you "want, and 
there is no better compliment to pay to a friend than 
a basket of fresh vegetables, wet with the dew, and 
right out of the home garden. People receive it with 
an expression that seems to say, *' How very sweet in 
you, to be sure," and back comes the basket with a 
note of thanks calculated to fill the heart with the 
conviction that the world is not all a hollow show 
after all. There is one thing you can always present to 
a lady, and that's a flower. Why not a cauliflower? 
Is not a cabbage a green rose? Pull off the outer 
petals till the white heart begins to shine, pack it in 
a neat basket and send it to your friend's table. If 
she's a housemother with a soul above Kensington 
crewel she will say, and say truly, it is beautiful. 
Green lawns and shrubbery have- their own glory, but 
there is also a glory of the cabbage patch and, 
though "the glory of one star" may not be "as the 
glory of another star," who shall say which is the 
greater glory ? 

My home lot account was opened November ist, 
18S7. There were then on hand in the garden sixty- 
four plants of the Jessie strawberry, worth say 64 
cents, a lot of currant cuttings worth $r, tools, flower 
pots and odd things worth $2, giving a stock on hand 
to begin the year of $2.64. There was paid out be- 
tween that time and September 5th, 1888, just $14.64. 
Of this $4.40 was for 200 pounds of Mape's fertilizer, 
$1.10 for materials for a cold frame covered with pro- 
tective cloth and $1.75 for labor. Of course, if this 
sum had been invested in vegetables it would have 



THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 65 

supplied the table for our small family for many 
weeks. Did it pay to spend it on the home lot ? 

The first return from the garden came on May 17th 
For the first ten days radishes were the only cheering 
thing to suggest the spring. Then the spinach began 
on May 26th, and soon came in a flood. By the 
first week in June young onions, beet tops and lettuce 
began to add a pleasant variety. On the 17th peas 
came also, and on the 23d strawberries. On the 24th 
the first delicate heads of young cabbage, and two 
days later the first potatoes. Beans and cauliflowers 
welcomed July, and then there was more than the 
home market could absorb. On the first day of 
August the total receipts from the garden, at the 
retail prices reported by The American Garden and 
in the village stores, amounted to just $23.10, or $8.13 
in money value over the cash cost. 

Through August the crops kept the table supplied 
with everything needed. Cucumbers came into bear- 
ing on the first of the month, and tomatoes soon after. 
On several days there were five kinds of vegetables 
served at one meal. There were no days without 
one, with two for an average. The crop of early 
potatoes was very small — a practical failure — and as 
there was no room for more, potatoes had to be pur- 
chased again by the last of August. As it was, one 
peck of Vanguard potato seed supplied a crop that 
carried the house for six weeks, this being a decided 
failure. Turnips and beets did not do very well, ex- 
cept a small lot of beets on trial. These were the 
New Eclipse and the: Early Bassano. The seed was 
from Burpee, and the beets proved of excellent 
quality, particularly the Bassano. The Eclipse grew 
to enormous size, and were of fine flavor. Of onions 
a row of white onions from Burpee proved to be of 
medium size, but of fine quality ; name not known. 



66 MV HANDKERCHIEF GARDEN. 

Cory corn was tried, but proved a total failure. The 
late crops of peas were also complete failures Of 
squashes I tried, at the request of The American 
Garden, the Sibley Summer squash. It proved to be 
a small, smooth, pale green squash of superior flavor. 
The plants were enormous growers, but the crop was 
small and late. The Woodbury squash also proved 
to be a vigorous plant, but with me a poor bearer, 
one hill of four plants producing only three good 
squashes, resembling in appearance a Hubbard squash. 
A new red cabbage sent to me grew to a very great 
size, with round, compact heads. So much for a few 
experiments. A home lot always has its advantage — 
it is at once school, experimental station and a source 
of amusement. You never can tell how things will 
turn out. The beautiful pictures of the seed cata- 
logues are even more splendid in reality at times, and 
then at times they lead to a high opinion of the lively 
imagination of the artists. Even with the losses it 
pays to try things, just for the sake of finding out for 
yourself. However, if you are looking for profit and 
not facts, don't do it. 

After the first of June the home lot took very little 
labor or time. A good raking of the ground once or 
twice a week kept the soil in good order, and fifteen 
minutes or less every morning served to gather the 
crops. Up to September ist the garden had produced 
crops valued at the retail price at $28.64. By the 
middle of September, $36.79. There were then on 
hand and unconsumed in the garden 200 good plants 
of celery, which, at 8 cents each, would be $16, and 
sundry other vegetables, including a large patch of 
spinach, about $2 more. Among other things pro- 
duced were ninety good yearling currant bushes and 
about forty grape vines raised from cuttings. The 
currants would cost at least 10 cents each were I to 



THE CONCLUSION OF THE WHOLE MATTER. 61 

buy them for the new garden I propose to plant next 
year, and this is a fair return from the garden of $9 
The grape cuttings are also intended for the new- 
place and will save at least 10 cents each, as they are 
all choice kinds, thus making a return of $4. These 
things are as much a crop as cauliflowers. They save 
buying plants next spring, and it is perfectly fair to 
add them to the returns from the garden. Had they 
not been wanted, of course the ground would have 
produced some other crop of less or equal value. 
The strawberry bed of sixty-four plants gave also 200 
new plants, their value at i cent each being included 
in the return from the garden. 

The sixty-four Jessie strawberry plants in my 
garden gave us, between June 21st and July 7th, just 
23 quarts of very fine strawberries. The berries were 
uniformly large, some of the very largest berries be- 
ing picked in the last quart. The place is too shaded 
for the best results, and I think with more sunshine 
and a trifle more rain they would have done much 
better. The flavor is " piney," bright and spicy. We 
bought no berries at the stores, as these were so fine. 
I propagated extensively for a new plantation for 
next year. I would decidedly recommend the Jessie 
for small gardens and as a rather late crop. My 
patch was entirely in hills, one foot apart each way, 
and carried a crop of lettuce between the plants early 
in the spring. Such close planting is a bit trouble- 
some in gathering the crop, yet if you have only a 
home lot it must be done where profit is to be re- 
garded. 

As a whole my particular home lot was a happy 
one. Nearly everything bore fair crops, and at dif- 
ferent times during the season my table was supplied 
with the following fruits and vegetables : Strawber- 
ries, radish, peas, spinach, onions, beans, lettuce, tur- 



68 MY HANDk'ERCHIEF GARDEN. 

nips, beets, carrots, tomatoes, cabbage, cauliflower, 
Upland cress, chicory, potatoes, squashes, cucumbers 
parsnips and celery. From a housekeeping point 
of view really cheering ; from a financial point of 
view quite as cheerful. 

The grand total produced in the garden during the 
season was $54.79 for fruit and vegetables actually 
consumed. The season began with a stock on hand 
of tools, plants, cuttings, etc., of $2.64. It ends with 
a stock of ninety currants at ten cents, $9 ; forty 
grapevines at ten cents, $4 ; 200 strawberry plants val- 
ued at $2 ; tools, etc., $3 ; making a total of $18. This 
is real profit, and should be credited to the garden, 
for the new stock of plants helps to reduce the cost 
of the new garden to be planted next year. My home 
lot was a nursery as well as a garden, and returned a 
nurseryman's profits, and the whole of his profits, be- 
cause the stock if bought must be paid for at retail 
prices. 

Did the home lot pay? Was the return sufficient 
for the labor? It was, and the garden did pay, be- 
cause the time spent on it was odd time not available 
for other work. Besides this, the work was a pleasure 
and a sanitary measure, paying a big dividend in red 
blood, sound sleep, a good appetite and a cheerful 
spirit. If you have ever been sick and paid doctor's 
bills you will know just what these things are worth 
in hard cash. The cost in money was $14.64 and 
about thirty days' labor between March and Novem- 
ber. The entire return, including new stock valued 
at $15, was $69.79. Taking cash spent from this leaves 
$55.15, or about $1.80 for each day's labor spent in 
the garden. Of course if the labor had all been hired 
at the regular rate here of $2 the garden would have 
been carried on at a loss. 

This brings the whole matter down to a business 



THE CONCLUSION OP THE WHOLE MATTER. 69 

basis, where you can settle for yourself whether it 
will pay you to have a home lot garden. Is your 
time worth so much (and it will have to be worth a 
good deal more than the average ) that your unem- 
ployed minutes afternoons and before breakfast are 
worth more than i8 cents an hour? If they are a 
home lot will not pay you. If they are not, and if you 
consider health, fresh and superior vegetable food 
worth anything, then a home lot will pay you, as it 
did me, big dividends. For the great majority of 
families, particularly where there are young people 
who can help out-of-doors, a home lot will make just 
the difference between profit and loss, between money 
in the savings bank and unpaid bills at the stores. 
The home lot is the one reliable asset in your little 
property that will neither fail, fly away to Canada 
nor pass its dividends — the one partnership in which 
you will always hold a controlling interest. 

Look at it in any way you will, keep a garden for 
pleasure or profit or health, you may set it down as 
your personal as well as national duty to make the 
most of the land that has been given to you. It is 
my belief that every man who has a bit of land is 
bound to consider it as a trust whereof he shall ren- 
der account and wherewith he should do his best to 
make the earth bring forth her increase for the benefit 
of himself, his folks and the rest of the republic. 



THE END. 



4^ 




E. H. LIB BY, 



Horticultural Publisher, 



NEW YORK. 




